Conductor Devin Patrick Hughes is at the forefront of creating orchestra programs that not only promote diversity but celebrate it. He has partnered with living composers over a decades-long career, initiating composer-in-residence programs, and founding ensembles that exist to give new voices platforms to showcase their skills.

Catching up with Hughes, who has been busy creating a discovery concert for students with the Arapahoe Philharmonic, a benefit concert for the victims of the Marshal Fire with the Boulder Symphony, and conducting interviews for his podcast One Symphony, which amplifies the voices of composers, performers, and other musical entrepreneurs breaking boundaries, I asked him about his upcoming program in Las Cruces, New Mexico.